Pioneering new ideas of life and health in the 21st Century. The flagship publication for the most innovative and authoritative writer/speaker/instructor on Understanding Conditioning. While he started out like all his friends wondering how to make exercise harder, his breakthrough idea was making exercise as easy as possible -- and therefore inevitable and unavoidable -- as the only effective lifelong strategy for those activities.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

One Thing Leads to Another

A lot of people are very discouraged by thinking of all the things they need to do -- that they never get around to doing anything at all -- and are exhausted and discouraged just thinking about it.That's because they haven't prioritize what they need to do most -- and first, and the rest will follow from that. But that doesn't happen just by doing anything -- or anything first. One merely has to do the right thing first -- and from that, the next right thing will follow.That right thing for humans, is increasing the blood flow to the brain -- and then the brain so empowered, will determine where the need is next. And in that manner, one is soon operating at maximum capacity, firing on all cylinders -- rather than wondering why did one do that? Then while one is trying to figure that out, their next moment of opportunity passes them by -- as all the mistakes, misgivings and regrets pile up -- and one feels lucky just to survive the day.And the next day is no better -- but the same nightmare of not getting anything right. One gets up, rushes into one crisis after another -- before the fog wears off and they have a glimpse of how they hoped the day would turn out -- very different from the mess they are already in, and have no way of getting out, but to hope that time will extricate them from that disaster.And so people who have observed these things in people and themselves, establish a practice of getting their heads right -- before doing anything else, which often consists of prayer or meditation as the first thing they do to begin each day -- religiously! But one doesn't have to live in a monastery to see the wisdom of turning on and connecting the mind (brain) to every other part of one's body -- as a daily ritual that makes their life work better. One doesn't have to do everything -- all at once, from the very beginning -- but doing the one thing almost nobody does before charging out in the world -- to save the world, is the biggest contribution anyone can make to the world -- and that is in achieving that clarity, before one attempts to do anything else. It is much like the warmup we see every athlete do, before attempting their best -- rather than just randomly making as many attempts as possible -- often injuring themselves in that way.That is obviously somebody who does not know what they are doing -- or care to. Not surprisingly, their outcomes are not good -- though they complain loudly and endlessly about being cheated by the world in this way, and can never figure out what they are doing wrong -- of which they never question. They will insist that they do everything right -- because they think they are doing everything important to do.That is a lot like the exercise people do -- what they think is important to do, rather than what makes a difference in their lives and appearance -- that those who look healthy, are those who are healthy -- because they make themselves that way. Even those who should know better, don't think such a thing is possible -- that what they do, is who they are -- because doing and being, have become disconnected in their minds. That is not the world healthy people live in -- in which everything is related to everything else, and caused by everything else.So changing one thing, already makes a difference -- leading to the next -- and not that one has to change everything, before one can change one thing, or anything -- which is how a lot of dysfunctional people think. So when you asked them to change one thing, they tell you of all the things they cannot change -- as their reason, for doing nothing. Everything is futile, doesn't make a difference, because they fail to distinguish what does -- before attempting anything.That is what we call preparation -- before one does anything -- which makes the difference in the outcome. We do that for very few things, when we should do it for everything we do. The preparation rather than the single attempt, is what defines us -- even more than world (personal) records, because it is what we do all the time -- regardless of the consideration of success or failure. It is simply the way we do things -- everything in our lives, and not just one or any other will see. That is the truth of our existence, our being. That is the life we live.